


With Faith, Among Friends

by coolbreezemage



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28616370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbreezemage/pseuds/coolbreezemage
Summary: Tilly looks at the Commander again. “Are you all right? I heard about what happened on Pahvo. That sounded really scary.” She can’t imagine having something in her head making her betray her friends. Or how she’d feel after it was done. “I guess that’s what happens when you’re in Starfleet. Sometimes you make amazing new discoveries and sometimes you get your brain possessed by aliens. Maybe both at the same time.”And it really, really isn’t her place to be reassuring him about anything that doesn’t involve the spore drive, but she’s here and he obviously feels terrible about whatever happened, so she has to try.
Relationships: Saru & Sylvia Tilly
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	With Faith, Among Friends

**Author's Note:**

> I still have a bunch of Fire Emblem fics in the pipeline, I promise, but meanwhile the crew of the Discovery have stolen my brain and they don’t seem likely to give it back anytime soon. 
> 
> I know there’s probably not enough downtime between episodes for this scene to happen, but I like the idea.
> 
> I haven't finished s3 yet, so no spoilers please!

Tilly heads to Sickbay muttering curses with Stamets’s shirt wrapped around the gash on her arm. She supposes she can’t blame the toolbox for closing on her wrist, even though she really wants to. That thing has a mind of its own, and it’s not a very nice one. Though it probably serves her right for trying to fix the broken panel _and_ read the data from the Pahvo beacon at the same time. But what was she supposed to do? Everyone else was busy.

Whatever. Sickbay. She’ll get patched up and back to work. 

She’s not expecting to find Commander Saru still there, but after what happened on the planet she probably shouldn’t be surprised.

“Oh, Commander! Hi!” She waves with her good arm.

He sits up and studies the bundle of bloody fabric at her other wrist. “Cadet Tilly. You are injured.”

“Yeah, that’s usually why people come to Sickbay…” On second thought, she probably shouldn’t be sassing her superior officers. “Uh, sorry, sir. I’ll be fine, it’s just a cut. Bleeding a lot, though. I thought I’d get it checked out anyway just in case any spores or something got in it, we can’t have that, you know.”

“You should exercise more caution in your work,” he tells her.

“I know, it was an accident. I’m not usually this much of a mess..”

The look that gets from him is probably one of concern. Or confusion. She’s used to both, especially from him. She’s not sure if his silence is an invitation to talk more or an indication he wants her to go away, but she can’t really go away until she’s gotten medical attention, so he’s gonna be stuck with her for a few more minutes. 

Where are the medical staff, anyway? She glances around, but the room is all but empty, only the beeping of scanners breaking the silence. 

She looks at the Commander again. “Are _you_ all right, sir? I heard about what happened on the planet. That sounded really scary.” She shivers. She can’t imagine having something else in her head making her betray her friends. Or how she’d feel after it was done.

Saru nods. “Indeed…” Which isn’t an answer and probably means he isn’t all right. 

And it really, really isn’t her place to be reassuring him about anything that doesn’t involve the spore drive, but she’s here and he obviously feels terrible about whatever happened, so she has to try. 

So she shrugs. “I guess that’s what happens when you’re in Starfleet. Sometimes you make amazing new discoveries and sometimes you get your brain possessed by aliens. Maybe both at the same time.” She giggles, because it’s a funny sentence, even if the truth is far from amusing. 

Saru, apparently, does not agree. “It would not be right to place responsibility for my actions on the inhabitants of Pahvo.”

“Yeah, Michael said you’re blaming yourself,” Tilly mutters to herself, then her eyes go wide as she realizes it was nowhere near quiet enough for him not to hear even if he didn’t have better senses than a human. 

His next words are sterner, but thankfully he doesn’t call her out on whatever it is she’s doing wrong this time. 

“Cadet. You were not there.”

She has to try, even if it means she’s out of line. “No, I mean, it’s literally in the handbook. Uh, section 129.4, if someone’s under an alien influence it means they’re not responsible for their actions.” Another nervous laugh. “You won’t believe the sorts of things that’ve happened on the _Enterprise_ , the reports are _crazy_ …” 

He shakes his head, unconvinced. “It is not that simple, Cadet. The Pahvans… While I was in communion with them, I remained aware enough to make my own decisions. Which means-” 

“Yeah, but they were still screwing with your head.” Interrupting him is a risk but it’s one she needs to take. “I took a look at the data we got on the Pahvans and uh, yeah, they don’t really explain much before going in there and changing things around…” She makes a wiggling gesture near her ear that she sincerely hopes isn’t offensive.

She doesn’t know much about his fear-instinct except that it’s saved their asses more than a few times, but it sounds horribly uncomfortable. Getting through the Academy and flying on a starship in the middle of a war is stressful enough as it is. She can’t imagine doing it while expecting to be attacked and eaten at any moment. And knowing how strong Saru is, she _really_ doesn’t want to see the creature that would hunt him.

Right now, she needs him to know she trusts him. 

She fidgets with the bundled-up shirt. “I mean, say I got kidnapped and drugged by weird monsters and told to fight anyone who comes near me. I would really hope my friends could forgive me for that. I’d forgive them, I mean… I’m sorry, sir, this probably isn’t helping.”

A pause. “No, it is… an interesting perspective. One I will consider. Thank you, Cadet.” 

She smiles. “Good! I’m glad.”

Doctor Culber shows up just in time to save her from having to find something else to say.

“Now, what do we have here?” He unwraps the shirt from her arm; she winces when it pulls on the cut. He frowns, disapproving. “Tilly, what’s Paul been putting you up to?”

“Oh, nothing really, this was my fault. Rogue toolbox, you know how it goes…”

Culber hums. “This won’t be a problem.” He glances to Saru. “You’re free to go, Commander. Everything checks out.”

Then he pulls Tilly aside to run a dermal regenerator over the gash and interrogate her about what’s going on in the spore chamber. She answers the questions as best as she can, and by the time he finally lets her go, the Commander is gone. Tilly hopes he’s getting some rest but she doubts it. 

The Klingons are coming, and they’ve got to be ready for them. But she’s found that even in war there’s time for friendship and supporting each other. She can’t imagine fighting for so long without that. If they’re going to win this thing, they’re going to do it together, no matter what bizarre things they encounter on the way. 

**Author's Note:**

> You just KNOW Tilly's catalogued Saru's various exasperated head-tilts the same way Jim Kirk has catalogued Spock’s Meaningful Eyebrow Raises.


End file.
